informer

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informer

(One providing criminal information), noun accuser, auctor, complainant, criminal information supplier, impeacher, indicter, informant, information supplier, one who supplies criminal information to the police, police tipper, squealer, tipster, witness against
Associated concepts: corroboration, reliable informer

informer

(A person who provides information), noun adviser, an noun cer, annunciator, communicant, courier, crier, delator, divulger, envoy, harbinger, intelligencer, messenger, notifier, proclaimer, relater, reporter, source, spokesman, teller, tipper, tipster, warner

INFORMER. A person who informs or prefers an accusation against another, whom he suspects of the violation of some penal statute.
2. When the informer is entitled to the penalty or part of the penalty, upon the conviction of an offender, he is or is not a competent witness, accordingly as the statute creating the penalty has or has not made him so. 1 Phil. Ev. 97; Rosc. Cr. Ev. 107; 5 Mass. R. 57; 1 Dall. 68; 1 Saund. 262, c. Vide articles Prosecutor; Rewards.

References in classic literature ?

If poor Miss Emily saw the old lady exhibited in the character of an informer," he thought, "what a blow would be struck at her innocent respect for the memory of her aunt

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My informer seemed to remember with the greatest horror the quivering of these chuzos as they approached near.

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And now cheat and play the informer if you can; I ask no quarter at your hands.

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Overheard, we must believe, by some guest, perhaps a friend, who hastened to play the informer, I suppose.

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He held the respectable office of general spy and informer in the establishment, for which volunteer service he received a present at Christmas, over and above his weekly wage.

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After some consideration, he went into business as an Informer, in which calling he realises a genteel subsistence.

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Lightwood also smoked, with his eyes negligently turned on the informer.

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If a gentleman was the victim of spies, intruders, and informers (but still naming no names), that was his own pleasure.

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But I defy the treasurer, or his two informers (I will name them, and let them make the best of it) Clustril and Drunlo, to prove that any person ever came to me INCOGNITO, except the secretary Reldresal, who was sent by express command of his imperial majesty, as I have before related.

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CRITO: Well, I will not dispute with you; but please to tell me, Socrates, whether you are not acting out of regard to me and your other friends: are you not afraid that if you escape from prison we may get into trouble with the informers for having stolen you away, and lose either the whole or a great part of our property; or that even a worse evil may happen to us?

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Now with respect to these honours which he proposes to bestow on those who can give any information useful to the community, this, though very pleasing in speculation, is what the legislator should not settle, for it would encourage informers, and probably occasion commotions in the state.

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The mob hitherto had been passive spectators of the scene, but as the intelligence of the Pickwickians being informers was spread among them, they began to canvass with considerable vivacity the propriety of enforcing the heated pastry-vendor's proposition: and there is no saying what acts of personal aggression they might have committed, had not the affray been unexpectedly terminated by the interposition of a new-comer.